Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind

Severance for people who don't have health insurance

Jonathan Abernathy is hopelessly, crushingly in debt. One night, Abernathy dreams he should go to a certain building and ask for a job. In his waking hours, he finds the building and fills out an application. He is offered the job.What job, you may ask? First of all, one which ensures he will never ever be free of work, because all his shifts will take place while he is asleep. He is to audit others' dreams. Corporations are now allowed to (secretly) opt their employees into dream auditing. The goal is to improve employee productivity by having people invade their subconscious, to identify and vacuum out any yucky or mentally ill or disturbing bits. As the saying goes, what you don't know can't hurt you! Why not take an eraser to your sleeping underlings' brains so invoices are submitted in a more timely manner? Seems risk-free and fine.Throughout the novel, Abernathy is trying and failing to keep touch with reality, and to spin his job in a positive light. Because despite it all, his job provides a glimmer of hope that he may escape debt and live a life before he dies.He was sought out precisely because of his desperate circumstances, and this could be his only way out of them. He may not be able to dream while sleeping anymore, so he compensates by dreaming while awake. He can finally hope for the bare minimum with a little less irony. Being able to make plans, to look forward at all, feels unfathomable. It is a feverish depiction of the primal tunnel vision that kicks in when you are routinely denied the smallest of wins. Les Mis could never.McGhee's writing is funny, devastating, and surreal. Jonathan Abernathy is so sympathetic and tender and awful and wonderful and human. The audiobook is one of the best I have listened to in a long while, and where I live is available immediately for free on the library app hoopla. I am all in on any fiction that starts with a nonfiction [a:David Graeber 29101 David Graeber https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1479657149p2/29101.jpg] quote.The book is unique, but calls to mind lots of other media, like Severance (the TV show and the unrelated [b:Ling Ma book 36348525 Severance Ling Ma https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507060524l/36348525.SY75.jpg 58029884]), The Double, The Good Place, [b:Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism 1213463 Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism (Perspectives on Gender) Melissa Wright https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347559260l/1213463.SY75.jpg 1201878], workplaces in [a:T.J. Klune's 5073330 T.J. Klune https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1546275989p2/5073330.jpg] books, [b:I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself 60679392 I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself Marisa Crane https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1648063139l/60679392.SY75.jpg 95655500], [b:Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine 31434883 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493724347l/31434883.SY75.jpg 47327681], and [b:Klara and the Sun 54120408 Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603206535l/54120408.SY75.jpg 84460796]. Please read it so we can talk about it!